In my paper I analyze the case of the supposed shamanistic ‘world tree’ of the conquering Hungarians: I show how this erroneous scientific construction came into being through the coming together of the mutually reinforcing mistakes of Hungarian folkloristics, linguistics, and archaeology; how manifestations of the spurious ideas of lay pseudo-science got mixed in with scientific discourse, and how they influenced the course of ‘professional’ scientific inquiry.My analysis sheds light on the most flagrant methodological mistakes that lead to the mistaken construct: a) the gaining ground of ideological influences from outside ‘pure’ scientific consid-erations (in our case features symbolizing Hungarian identity that set it apart from Europeans: the quest for ancient Hungarian shamanism); b) an inverse research attitude of selectively looking for evidence to prove the researcher’s preconceptions; c) the effects of a deferential research attitude which considers one or another ‘great’ researcher infallible and their results irrefutable, which short circuits further research on a topic.My paper has three parts: the first one deals with the emergence of the construct, the second with the errors of the construct created by highly respected scholars (Gyula Sebestyén, Géza Róheim, Sándor Solymossy, Vilmos Diószegi) and its Hungarian and international reception, while in the third part, I describe the processes of the construct’s deconstruction and its parallelly occurring revival.I come to the conclusion that the world tree and the related rites connected to the initiation of shamans most likely did not exist in the worldview and ritual practices of the conquering Hungarians and that in light of the most recent research results they seem to be part of an illusionary research construct which came about through the interplay of the strivings of ethnographers, archaeologists, linguists and amateurs who started out from a certain set of preconceptions.
{"title":"The World Tree of the Conquering Hungarians in the Light of Scholarly Illusions","authors":"Éva Pócs","doi":"10.47074/hsce.2023-2.08","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47074/hsce.2023-2.08","url":null,"abstract":"In my paper I analyze the case of the supposed shamanistic ‘world tree’ of the conquering Hungarians: I show how this erroneous scientific construction came into being through the coming together of the mutually reinforcing mistakes of Hungarian folkloristics, linguistics, and archaeology; how manifestations of the spurious ideas of lay pseudo-science got mixed in with scientific discourse, and how they influenced the course of ‘professional’ scientific inquiry.My analysis sheds light on the most flagrant methodological mistakes that lead to the mistaken construct: a) the gaining ground of ideological influences from outside ‘pure’ scientific consid-erations (in our case features symbolizing Hungarian identity that set it apart from Europeans: the quest for ancient Hungarian shamanism); b) an inverse research attitude of selectively looking for evidence to prove the researcher’s preconceptions; c) the effects of a deferential research attitude which considers one or another ‘great’ researcher infallible and their results irrefutable, which short circuits further research on a topic.My paper has three parts: the first one deals with the emergence of the construct, the second with the errors of the construct created by highly respected scholars (Gyula Sebestyén, Géza Róheim, Sándor Solymossy, Vilmos Diószegi) and its Hungarian and international reception, while in the third part, I describe the processes of the construct’s deconstruction and its parallelly occurring revival.I come to the conclusion that the world tree and the related rites connected to the initiation of shamans most likely did not exist in the worldview and ritual practices of the conquering Hungarians and that in light of the most recent research results they seem to be part of an illusionary research construct which came about through the interplay of the strivings of ethnographers, archaeologists, linguists and amateurs who started out from a certain set of preconceptions.","PeriodicalId":267555,"journal":{"name":"Historical Studies on Central Europe","volume":" 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138963655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the last week of August 2023 (27 Augustus – 2 September), the first V4 Summer School in Economic History was held in Prague. It was organized by the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, and the University of Warsaw. The event was financially supported by the Visegrad Fund. The long-term target of the Ph.D. Summer School in Economic History was to incorporate the V4 historiographies of economic history into international networks. It intended to encourage the young generation of economic historians to enter the international scene and participate in an open academic discussion.
{"title":"The First V4 Summer School in Economic History, Prague, 2023","authors":"Antonie Doležalová","doi":"10.47074/hsce.2023-2.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47074/hsce.2023-2.11","url":null,"abstract":"In the last week of August 2023 (27 Augustus – 2 September), the first V4 Summer School in Economic History was held in Prague. It was organized by the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, and the University of Warsaw. The event was financially supported by the Visegrad Fund. The long-term target of the Ph.D. Summer School in Economic History was to incorporate the V4 historiographies of economic history into international networks. It intended to encourage the young generation of economic historians to enter the international scene and participate in an open academic discussion.","PeriodicalId":267555,"journal":{"name":"Historical Studies on Central Europe","volume":"39 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139174796","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rival Byzantiums: Empire and Identity in Southeastern Europe. By Diana Mishkova.","authors":"John R. Lampe","doi":"10.47074/hsce.2023-2.20","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47074/hsce.2023-2.20","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":267555,"journal":{"name":"Historical Studies on Central Europe","volume":"2 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139172931","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Late Medieval Cult of the Saints. Universal Developments within Local Contexts by Carmen Florea was published within the series Global Sanctity under the aegis of the Hagiography Society. The author is a lecturer at the Department of Medieval History and Historiography at Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca. Her mono-graph explores the dynamics of sanctity in late medieval Transylvania. The investigation of the cult of saints has been a popular topic in the last few decades. Several scholars have scrutinized the different aspects of sanctity on a macrohistorical level, such as the genesis of this phenomenon and the changing of saintly models through the centuries. At the microhistorical level, there are different options for a scholar: one can investigate a certain saint or type of saint within a specific geographical-and/or timeframe or examine the cult of saints in a region in a narrow period. There are advantages and disadvantages to all approaches. If one deals with a saint or a type of saint, one can track the changes within the cult and compare them to the European parallels, but it is hard to put this into a bigger frame and see the real position of the holy figure(s) among other saints. While if someone investigates the cult of saints in a region, they may generate a more complete picture, but it is difficult to concentrate on the details. Carmen Florea has chosen the latter option. The author investigated the late medieval (from ca. 1300 to the Reformation) cult of the saints in Transylvania with excellent results: she has been able to sketch a complete picture
{"title":"The Late Medieval Cult of the Saints. Universal Developments within Local Contexts. By Carmen Florea.","authors":"Dorottya Uhrin","doi":"10.47074/hsce.2023-2.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47074/hsce.2023-2.13","url":null,"abstract":"The Late Medieval Cult of the Saints. Universal Developments within Local Contexts by Carmen Florea was published within the series Global Sanctity under the aegis of the Hagiography Society. The author is a lecturer at the Department of Medieval History and Historiography at Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca. Her mono-graph explores the dynamics of sanctity in late medieval Transylvania. The investigation of the cult of saints has been a popular topic in the last few decades. Several scholars have scrutinized the different aspects of sanctity on a macrohistorical level, such as the genesis of this phenomenon and the changing of saintly models through the centuries. At the microhistorical level, there are different options for a scholar: one can investigate a certain saint or type of saint within a specific geographical-and/or timeframe or examine the cult of saints in a region in a narrow period. There are advantages and disadvantages to all approaches. If one deals with a saint or a type of saint, one can track the changes within the cult and compare them to the European parallels, but it is hard to put this into a bigger frame and see the real position of the holy figure(s) among other saints. While if someone investigates the cult of saints in a region, they may generate a more complete picture, but it is difficult to concentrate on the details. Carmen Florea has chosen the latter option. The author investigated the late medieval (from ca. 1300 to the Reformation) cult of the saints in Transylvania with excellent results: she has been able to sketch a complete picture","PeriodicalId":267555,"journal":{"name":"Historical Studies on Central Europe","volume":" 48","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138963552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Competing Frameworks of Interpreting Modernity in East Central Europe","authors":"Gergely Romsics","doi":"10.47074/hsce.2023-2.04","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47074/hsce.2023-2.04","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":267555,"journal":{"name":"Historical Studies on Central Europe","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138965002","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
J. Laszlovszky, Balázs Nagy, János B. Szabó, Dorottya Uhrin
This report gives an account of the historiography of the Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1241–1242, and the ongoing research of the project “The Mongol Invasion of Hungary in its Eurasian Context.” The research has been carried out by an interdisciplinary team comprising representatives of diverse academic institutions and fields. The primary objective of the project was to reassess existing scholarship by comparing it with the findings of the project team members, ultimately generating new scholarly insights. The team members concentrated on various aspects, including archaeology, military history, and the short- and long-term impacts of the Mongol military invasions in the mid-thirteenth century.
{"title":"The Mongol Invasion of Hungary in Its Eurasian Context","authors":"J. Laszlovszky, Balázs Nagy, János B. Szabó, Dorottya Uhrin","doi":"10.47074/hsce.2023-2.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47074/hsce.2023-2.10","url":null,"abstract":"This report gives an account of the historiography of the Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1241–1242, and the ongoing research of the project “The Mongol Invasion of Hungary in its Eurasian Context.” The research has been carried out by an interdisciplinary team comprising representatives of diverse academic institutions and fields. The primary objective of the project was to reassess existing scholarship by comparing it with the findings of the project team members, ultimately generating new scholarly insights. The team members concentrated on various aspects, including archaeology, military history, and the short- and long-term impacts of the Mongol military invasions in the mid-thirteenth century.","PeriodicalId":267555,"journal":{"name":"Historical Studies on Central Europe","volume":"95 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138995210","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The leader cult built up around Miklós Horthy, the Regent of Hungary between 1920 and 1944, was one of the leader cults that appeared after World War I as a response to the critical social and political conditions. According to the main message of Horthy’s selectively constructed image, he was the only one who could achieve the national goals and restore the lost national glory. In my paper, I analyze religion, primarily Christianity, as a domain from which the cult-makers selected, (mis)used, and manipulated symbols, elements, and concepts, such as ‘resurrection’, ‘rebirth’, ‘salvation’, ‘the Passion of the Christ’, ‘selectness’, ‘the promised land’, and references to the will of divine providence for justifying the leadership of Horthy. Religious symbols also shaped and strengthened the national identity. It is shown that the traditional churches, because of the cooperation between them and the state, made a significant contribution to strengthening the leader’s legitimacy in this way. This is the reason why the term ‘politicized religion’, introduced by Juan J. Linz, seems appropriate in this context. Naturally, this was a wider phenomenon in Hungary, but the Horthy cult is its striking example.
{"title":"Nation Building and Religion","authors":"Dávid Turbucz","doi":"10.47074/hsce.2023-2.05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47074/hsce.2023-2.05","url":null,"abstract":"The leader cult built up around Miklós Horthy, the Regent of Hungary between 1920 and 1944, was one of the leader cults that appeared after World War I as a response to the critical social and political conditions. According to the main message of Horthy’s selectively constructed image, he was the only one who could achieve the national goals and restore the lost national glory. In my paper, I analyze religion, primarily Christianity, as a domain from which the cult-makers selected, (mis)used, and manipulated symbols, elements, and concepts, such as ‘resurrection’, ‘rebirth’, ‘salvation’, ‘the Passion of the Christ’, ‘selectness’, ‘the promised land’, and references to the will of divine providence for justifying the leadership of Horthy. Religious symbols also shaped and strengthened the national identity. It is shown that the traditional churches, because of the cooperation between them and the state, made a significant contribution to strengthening the leader’s legitimacy in this way. This is the reason why the term ‘politicized religion’, introduced by Juan J. Linz, seems appropriate in this context. Naturally, this was a wider phenomenon in Hungary, but the Horthy cult is its striking example.","PeriodicalId":267555,"journal":{"name":"Historical Studies on Central Europe","volume":"14 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139173467","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bishop John Vitez and Early Renaissance Central Europe: The Humanist Kingmaker. By Tomislav Matić.","authors":"Kornél Illés","doi":"10.47074/hsce.2023-2.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47074/hsce.2023-2.14","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":267555,"journal":{"name":"Historical Studies on Central Europe","volume":"104 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139176125","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Wilson and the Segregation of the Eastern European ‘Races’","authors":"Péter Csunderlik","doi":"10.47074/hsce.2023-2.19","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47074/hsce.2023-2.19","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":267555,"journal":{"name":"Historical Studies on Central Europe","volume":"43 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138965297","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The reform of the Catholic clergy initiated by the Council of Trent emphasized the importance of the practical exercise of the care of souls (cura animarum). The ideal priest should, following the example of Christ—the Good Shepherd, take responsible care of his ‘sheep’—the parishioners. The paper focuses on how the parish clergy performed pastoral care, based on the analysis of reports written on clerics working in the 1760s in ten Moravian and Silesian estates of the Prince of Liechtenstein. These reports prepared by the Prince’s officials mostly contain an evaluation of the performance of the pastoral care by the given cleric. They thus provide an interesting insight into the religious services offered by the lower clergy from the perspective of the owner of the estate, who was also the patron of the local parishes. They show that the Prince of Liechtenstein as the patron, together with his officials, supervised how the clerics provided for the spiritual needs of his subjects and furthermore through the exercise of the right of patronage he helped to provide his subjects with proper pastoral care.
{"title":"Religious Services or the Care of Souls in Reports on Clerics at the Moravian and Silesian Estates Belonging to the Prince of Liechtenstein from the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century","authors":"Pavel Pumpr","doi":"10.47074/hsce.2023-2.03","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47074/hsce.2023-2.03","url":null,"abstract":"The reform of the Catholic clergy initiated by the Council of Trent emphasized the importance of the practical exercise of the care of souls (cura animarum). The ideal priest should, following the example of Christ—the Good Shepherd, take responsible care of his ‘sheep’—the parishioners. The paper focuses on how the parish clergy performed pastoral care, based on the analysis of reports written on clerics working in the 1760s in ten Moravian and Silesian estates of the Prince of Liechtenstein. These reports prepared by the Prince’s officials mostly contain an evaluation of the performance of the pastoral care by the given cleric. They thus provide an interesting insight into the religious services offered by the lower clergy from the perspective of the owner of the estate, who was also the patron of the local parishes. They show that the Prince of Liechtenstein as the patron, together with his officials, supervised how the clerics provided for the spiritual needs of his subjects and furthermore through the exercise of the right of patronage he helped to provide his subjects with proper pastoral care.","PeriodicalId":267555,"journal":{"name":"Historical Studies on Central Europe","volume":"71 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139174588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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